Background: The position is an office manager for a school. It is a salaried position, meanining there is NO overtime. There is an employment agreement that states work hours are 7 to 5, for a minimum 45 hour work week. Been in the position for almost 3 years. Going through a 2nd pregnancy at this job. The school has 13 employees, and therefore does not qualify for FMLA.

Due to medical complications during 2nd pregnancy, the OB has limited my working hours to 40 hours a week MAX, and no more than 8 hours per day. My boss now wants to reduce my salary. Can he legally do that?

Special note: Boss did not bring up reducing my salary until another employee coming BACK off of maternity leave announced that she would not be working more than 40 hours per week. He told her he would reduce her salary. Now he feels that he has to reduce mine or it would be a double standard. In my opinion, the difference is that she is CHOOSING to cut her hours, versus my OB cutting my hours for health reasons. Is that a form of discrimination? This person's hours were also cut for medical reasons prior to the birth, but her salary was never reduced at that time. It was not until she made her announcement that she would limit her hours that he decided to cut her pay.

I informed my boss that after this baby is born in August I would not be returning to work. I advised him that he should be prepared to hire someone and train them before I left. He has hired someone and has told me that he will no longer need my services after May.

Is this considered discrimination since he is "letting me go" before my verbal notification expired? I made it very clear that I would work up until the birth.

Also, during my 1st pregnancy and maternity leave, he sent an email stating that the maternity policy for a 1-year employee was 4 weeks of paid maternity leave. Should I be entitled to my maternity leave if I'm able to stay until August? Do I have any other claims for that leave if he lets me go earlier? I know I don't qualify under FMLA, but since it was a policy he sent out via email, is it something I can hold him to?

Yes, your salary can be adjusted at any time, as long a it does not fall below the minimum required for exempt status of $455 per week. Also even if it is reduced, it still has to be the same salary per pay.

Your employer is not discriminating for letting you go early. As long as it is not because you are pregnant. It seems that the employer can not keep 2 people in the same position. The question is: would the employer have done the same thing if you had not told them you were not going to return?

Did you had a contract for the 4 weeks maternity leave? (Sometimes, the verbage in a policy will imply a contract, and employers can get into a bind by not having policies checked by legal.) Otherwise, you may not be able to receive the benefit. Could you make the request of the 4 weeks as part of a severance package? Never hurts to ask.

You should apply for unemployment insurance after your last day in May. If you are able and available to work at that point you may receive benefits because in effect you were laid off.

No, there is nothing wrong with reducing your salary for a reduced work period. A doctor's note carries no legal weight and doesn't entitle you to extra pay or special accommodations.

If you have announced you are leaving at some future point, your employer is free to hire someone else and needn't keep you on board until the last day you decide to work. This is no differnt than if you announced that you were planning on going back to school in the fall and would not be returning or were seeking another job.

If you aren't employed at the time you deliver and would have been eligible for maternity benefits, you are not entitled to them based on the fact that you used to work for an employer that offered them. If I leave my job and a month later am sick for a week, I can't call my former employer to get sick leave pay. I might have been eligible for it had I still been working there, but as I am not, my former employer has no obligation to me.